A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin, together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?

A. All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable. to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Q. 20. Did God leave all manhind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

Q. 21. Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?

A. The only Redeemer of God's elect, is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was and continueth to be God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.

Q. 22. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?

A. Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable

death of the cross, in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.

Q. 28. Wherein consisteth Christ's exaltation?

A. Christs exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dea.d oil the third day, in aseending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

Q. 29. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?

A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by the Holy Spirit.

Q. 30. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Q. 31. What is effectual calling?

A. Effectual calling is a work of God's Spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel.

Q. 32. What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?

A. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, and

sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.

Q. 33. What is justification?

A. Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Q. 34. What is adoption?

A. Adoption is an act of God's free grace. whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons of God.

Q. 35. What is sanctification?

A. Sanctification is a work of God's Spirit, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.

Q. 36. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

A. The benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from justification, adopion, and sanctification, are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance herein to the end.

A These words, "before me," in the first commandment, teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god.

Q. 49. Which is the second commandment?

A. The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing thit is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Q. 50. What is required in the second commandment?

A. The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his word.

Q. 51. What is forbidden in the second commandment?

A. The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images, or in any other way not appointed in his word.

commandment are, God's sovereignty over us, his property in us, and the zeal he hath to his own worship.

Q. 53. Which is the third commandment?

A. The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Q. 54. What is required in the third commandment?

A .The third commandment requireth the holy and reverend use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.

Q. 55. What is forbidden in the third commandment?

A The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of any thing whereby God maketh himself known.

Q. 56. What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?

A. The reason annexed to the third commandment is, that, however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffier them to escape his righteous judgement.

Q. 57. Which is the fourth commandment?

A. The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the. seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou,

nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the, Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Q. 58. What is required in the fourth commandment?

A. The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his word, expressly one whole day in seven to be a holy Sabbath to himself.

Q. 59. Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath?

A. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath, and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.

Q. 60. How is the Sabbath to be sanctified.

A. The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days, and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

A The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or by doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about worldly employments or recreations.

Q. 62. What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment?

Q. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God's allowing us six days of the week for our own employment, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the Sabbath day

Q. 63. Which is the fifth commandment?

A. The fifth commandment is, Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may belong upon the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Q. 64. What is required in the fifth commandment?

A. The fifth commandment requireth the preserving the honor, and performing the duties, belonging to every one, in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors, or equals.

Q. 65. What is forbidden in the fifth commandment?

A. The fifth commandment forbiddeth the neglecting of, or doing any thing against, the honor and duty belonging to every one, in their several places and relations,

A. Every sin deserveth God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come.

Q. 85. What doth God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin?

A. To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, with a diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption.

Q. 86. What is faith in Jesus Christ?

A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive, and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.

Q. 87. What is repentance unto life?

A. Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.

Q. 88. What are the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption?

A. The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption, are, his ordinances, especially the

word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.

Q. 89. How is the word made effiectual to salvation?

A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading but especially the preaching, of the word an effectual mcans of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.

Q. 90. How is the word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation?

A.That the word may become eflectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto, with diligence, preparation, and prayer, receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practise it in our lives.

Q. 91. How do the sacraments become effectual means of salvation?

A. The sacraments become efflectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them, but only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in theni that by faith receive them.

Q. 92. What is a sacrament?

A. A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein, by sensible signs Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

A. The sacraments of the New Testament are, baptism and the Lord's supper.

Q. 94. What is baptism?

A. Baptism is a sacrament wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's.

Q. 95. To whom is baptism to be administered?

A. Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, till they profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him; but the infants of such as are members of the visible church are to be baptized.

Q. 96. What is the Lord's supper?

A. The Lord's supper is a sacrament wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine according to Christ's appointment, his death is showed forth, and the worthy receivers are not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.

Q. 97. What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord's supper?

A. It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord's supper that they

examine themselves, of their knowledge to discern the Lord's body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance, love, and new obedience, lest, coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

98. What is prayer?

A. Prayer is an offering up of our desire unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.

Q. 99. What rule hath God given for our direction in prayer?

A. The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but the special rule of direction is that form of prayer which Christ taught his disciples, commonly called the Lord's Prayer.

Q. 100. What doth the preface of the Lord's Prayer teach us?

A. The preface of the Lord's Prayer, which is, "Our Father, which art in heaven," teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us, and that we should pray with and for others.

Q. 101. What do we pray for in the first petition?

A. In the first petition, which is, "Hallowed be thy name," we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that where

by he maketh himself known, and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.

Q. 102. What do we pray for in the second petition?

A. In the second petition, which is, "Thy kingdom come," we pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed, and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it, and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.

Q. 103. What do we pray for in the third petition?

A.In the third petition, which is, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven," we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to, his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

Q. 104. What do we pray for in the fourth petition?

A. In the fourth petition, which is, "Give us this day our daily bread," we pray that, of God's free gift, we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them.

Q. 105. What do we pray for in the fifth petition?

A. In the fifth petition, which is, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," we pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins: which we are the

rather encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.

Q. 106. What do we pray for in the sixth petition?

A. In the sixth petition, which is, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

Q. 107. What doth the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer teach us?

A. The couclusion of the Lord's Prayer, which is, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the, glory, forever, Amen," teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory, to him; and in testimony to our desire and as surance to be heard, we say, Amen.